PopHorror Let's Get Scared
In the horror genre, there can be a variety of things that can be considered scary. You can have classic monsters, ghosts, serial killers, jump scares and zombies that you can suspend your disbelief long enough to get freaked out. Then you can have good, old fashioned realistic horror, something that looks so real that you don’t need to suspend your disbelief. That, my friends, is The Deer Hunter.
Based off the unused screenplay The Man Who Came To Play by Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K Redeker, The Deer Hunter tells the story of three Russian orthodox steelworkers heading to Vietnam and not coming home the same. Nicky (Christopher Walken), Michael (Robert De Niro) and Steven (John Savage) complete their last day at work in a Pennsylvania steel mill and prepare for Steven’s wedding. Along with their friends, Stan (John Cazale), John (George Dzundza) and Axel (Chuck Aspegren), they are shown to be fun-loving small town citizens who love to hunt, drink and party. While at the wedding reception, the group encounters a soldier fresh from Vietnam (Paul D’Amato) who’s surly, angry and unfriendly. In just a finger snap, the movie shifts from the fun of small town life to the horror of Vietnam, where Nicky, Steven and Michael are captured as POWs. Forced to play Russian Roulette, the trio are subjected to a horror never seen before in their lives, and they are never the same after for the rest of the movie.
That is the bread and butter of the movie right there. You watch the Russian Roulette scene with bodies everywhere plus Vietcong soldiers browbeating and screaming at the main characters. How could you not get freaked out by that? That could be YOU. It’s easy to look at a monster movie like Godzilla, Dawn of The Dead or Insidious and say, “That could never happen.” Then you look at the horrors of Vietnam and realize that that DID happen. Ask any Vietnam vet what their experiences were like, and the majority of them will say it wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Now for the rundown. Is it a gory movie? That’s an affirmative. We got compound fractures, bodies burnt to a crisp, gunshot wounds, headshots and buckets of blood. The acting is top notch with A-listers such as De Niro, Walken, Meryl Streep and Cazale. The special effects were standard for 1978, plus it was a Hollywood production, so camera work and lighting are also top notch. How well was it received? The movie almost swept the Oscars by winning Best Picture, Best Actor (De Niro), Best Director (Cimino), Best Supporting Actor (Walken) and Best Sound, with Streep just barely missing Best Actress (that honor went to Jane Fonda in Coming Home). Critically it was acclaimed, but as per usual, the hysterical social justice cuckoo clocks had to have their say. People were outraged that the North Vietnamese were portrayed as savages, and fans picketed the Oscars and The Deer Hunter out of protest. There were 13 reported arrests at the 1979 Academy Awards, which tells you all you need to know of the controversy The Deer Hunter churned up.
Without spoiling anything, one of the most brutal scene is near the very end, when it comes down to a final confrontation between Nicky and Michael in Vietnam over yet another game of Russian Roulette. Nicky’s human nature is stripped away after the horror he faced, and Michael tries desperately to get through to him before one of them is killed by a single shot. As Nicky and Michael trade clicks of a gun the viewer, you’re on the edge of your seat wondering how this will end. King Kong, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hatchet and other horror movies are scary with their over the top brutality, but The Deer Hunter cannot be overlooked with its scary realism.
